


Lost bird

by sarcasmismyweapon



Series: Learning Curve [25]
Category: Naruto
Genre: 2nd year anniversary, 2ndyearanniversary, Anbu Hatake Kakashi, Anbu Namiashi Raidou, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Gift Work, Hurt/Comfort, Life lessons fic, LifeLessonsfic, Ninken | Ninja Dogs, dog bites
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-24 00:03:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20016973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasmismyweapon/pseuds/sarcasmismyweapon
Summary: Life Lessons ficIruka and Izumo were just doing some simple work for Tsume and then, of course, Iruka had to go and get bitten by a very large very angry Ninken.





	Lost bird

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ice_Queen_96](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ice_Queen_96/gifts).



> We've made it to two years on the main story, TWO YEARS! The official anniversary is the 30th but I'll be at a client's house with spotty wifi so I figured it was best to post things now. Many thanks to those who participated in the 2nd-anniversary quiz and I hope you all enjoy the fics for this years anniversary.

Iruka knew he didn’t have a boring life, never had and most likely never would, that didn’t mean, however, that he wasn’t still surprised when his life turned interesting. More aptly he realized belatedly that this wasn’t the kind of interesting that he would have picked if he’d had the choice, then again he never really had a choice.

“Is he in shock?”

Iruka blinked a few times, his head jerking up to stare at the figure who was frowning down at him. Iruka shook his head silently, no, he wasn’t in shock, he couldn’t be in shock if he was aware right? “That’s stupid.” He muttered dryly.

“Well, you did zone the hell out- OW.” The teen whined as he clutched the back of his head, Iruka couldn’t help but chuckle at his friend's blight, his eyes lazily tracking towards the reason his friend was now clutching his head.

Tsume sighed, looking down at the Chunin before shaking her head. Iruka gave her a smile back right before stating in a carefree tone. “Oops?”

She snorted, not in the least bit amused. “I told you boys to stay away from the back pen.”

“To be fair, we did.” Iruka countered quickly, his gaze going back to the pen and the destruction that now made up the previous structure. It was quite distracting to look at. 

“Yeah!” Izumo shouted. “Not our fault your crazy mutt went bonkers and destroyed the fence.” Izumo’s boisterous and cocky nature soon turned coward, he winced and ducked his head under the Inuzuka’s withering glare.

Iruka was ignorant to his friend's current ability to put his own foot in his mouth, staring at the pen all the while commenting. “He broke the gate, you weren’t kidding when you said he had a temper,” Iruka replied even as he leaned back on his hands to look around. The destroyed fence looked almost comical if you didn’t remember that a single dog had been the cause of all the destruction. Not only was the pen where the dog had been kept destroyed, bits of metal and wood were thrown around as the dog had gnawed on all the available surfaces for itself escape attempt but the fence beyond had been rendered useless when the dog finally broke free of its pen. Nothing was going to get in the animal’s way...Well, one thing did. Iruka.

“He’s in shock isn’t he?” Izumo’s voice was more contrite, not wishing to anger the stern woman again after insulting the dog, even if it was a crazy one.

Tsume sighed, crouching down she took in how distracted Iruka appeared to be and the sight of his leg. There was a good amount of blood, the boy's pant leg had been rendered into scraps. The bite that had torn the boy to the ground had gone deep, the dog hadn’t been playing when it went for the Chunin. It was a painful wound to be sure, looking back at Iruka and how he was seemingly oblivious to all of that as he stared back towards the fences, Tsume replied. “Yeah, he’s in shock.”

“So...What do we do?”

Tsume rolled her eyes at the spooked Chunin, for all his energy he didn’t seem to know how to direct it. Standing back up she nodded to Izumo. “You stay here, I’m going to go get some help. Don’t let him try to get up.”

“Sure.” Izumo agreed wholeheartedly, crouching down to be beside his friend. Though Iruka didn’t seem to notice the move his friend made on his behalf.

A final look to the two Chunin, Tsume headed back towards her house. She should have put the dog down earlier, this was her fault. Shaking her head, Tsume climbed the small stairs to the porch and further to the front door. Coming just inside she waved off her own dog, knowing that he would scent the blood and the emotions rolling off of her. “Go keep the pups in line.”

The dog gave a nod, quickly exiting the house to do as she asked. Picking up the phone, Tsume glowered at the wall across from herself, waiting for the person on the other line to pick up.

“I need to borrow someone and I don’t care if it’s an inconvenience to you.”

********

Iruka was still staring at the fence, it was just so surprising to know that a single dog had made such a mess of things, had escaped at all. Sure, he knew they were ninken and everything but that...That seemed extreme even for a Ninken’s abilities. The wooden fence posts were torn from the force of the wire mesh being ripped apart, part of the posts themselves having shifted in the earth as if the dog had been moments away from lifting them out of the earth as well. The wire was bloody, the dog hadn’t cared that it was hurting itself in its attempts to flee the confines of its prison. The wire’s edges were sharp from where they had snapped under the strain of the beasts weight and powerful jaws. 

There were divets in the earth from where the dog's paws had dug in and scrabbled for a hold in the earth in its drive forward. Iruka wondered what had happened to it, why it had done all of this, why Tsume had the dog secluded as it had been. If it was because of aggression, he could understand, but Iruka didn’t let his mind wander too much on all of that. Far more focused on the fact that once the beast had gotten through the fence it had gone straight for them or rather him, Iruka had been the unlucky one to be closer. Though the Chunin was somewhat thankful for that, Izumo was fast on his feet and the dog hadn’t had a chance to do more damage than his leg. From what he could recall, it didn’t seem like the dog would have let him go so easily, thankfully, his friend stepped in and with a bit of applied force the dog backed off. Tsume was outside as soon as the hollering began, coming to Izumo’s aid and swiftly taking the dog in hand. Where she took it he didn’t know, but it was safe to say that it most likely wasn’t being allowed to roam freely. 

Iruka turned his head, he could hear some kind of muffled words but it was almost like he was hearing them through water. Looking up the Chunin saw that it wasn’t just Izumo or Tsume who were here to witness his apparent mauling, the mask took a moment to register and then all at once the Chunin spoke. “I don’t think this calls for Anbu.”

The figure snorted, kneeling down all while maintaining eye contact with the slow-reacting teen. “Considering that you just now noticed I’m even here, I think I can ignore your opinion on that.”

Iruka frowned back at the masked man, ultimately choosing to state. “It’s not that bad.”

“Again...Not the best defense. Have you taken a look?” The Anbu taunted, looking down at the boy's leg himself only to shake his head. “Yeah...That’s a tad worse than a paper cut kid.”

Iruka followed the Anbu’s example, glancing down at his leg only to stare blankly at it. There was a lot of blood and...Holes. Must have been where the dog's teeth had sunken into his flesh when it had grabbed him like he was some kind of bone for it to chew on. A snap of a finger in front of his face had Iruka jerking back, blinking only to glare at the Anbu.

“Don’t do that.”

“And he’s back with us.” Hawk teased. “Come on kid, let’s get you up.” Staying crouched, Hawk reached out and forced Iruka to grab a hold of him while he held onto the Chunin. With a bit more force than he had anticipated needing, Raidou got the kid back on his feet or rather upright and leaning against him. Chuckling as he cradled the teen to himself, Raidou nodded to Tsume.

“Good call.”

She snorted. “Just take him to a doctor, he’ll need to get that cleaned out.” She muttered sourly. “I have something to take care of.” She turned sharply towards Izumo. “Go home.”

The teen flinched at the woman’s bark, a quick look to Hawk and Iruka showed that he wasn’t going to be invited to tag along. Shrugging the teen muttered. “Feel better.” He disappeared in a puff of smoke before anyone could get after him for not obeying right away. 

Iruka huffed against the Anbu’s armor, it wasn’t like he had the flu or something. It was just a dog bite, he’d be fine. Izumo was just being overly dramatic and...Iruka slammed his eyes shut when he was shifted around. Hawk hadn’t shifted him so much as transported them somewhere, his body did not appreciate the jarring motion of all of that and the first spark of pain registered in the Chunin’s brain.

Iruka gasped, his hand latching onto the Anbu’s arm guards as he was held. “Easy kid.”

Iruka nodded repeatedly in some vain attempt to show that he was listening, not that it really mattered as soon enough Hawk threw his arm over his own shoulder and dragged Iruka along down the hallway of where ever they were in the hospital. Iruka knew for a fact that was where the Anbu had taken him, but why they were seemingly on a random floor and not in the ER eluded him. Iruka grimaced and hissed with every jarring step, now that the adrenaline was wearing off and the stupid transportation jutsu had kicked his brain back into gear Iruka was finding that he longed for the sweet embrace of shock.

“Almost there,” Hawk promised the teen who was now holding tightly onto his armor, leaning more and more against him.

“Where?” Iruka gasped with a hitch in his breath.

“End of the hall.”

“Why didn’t you transport us there?!” Iruka gritted through clenched teeth.

Snorting the Anbu replied. “Don’t bitch at me kid, I got you here, I could have just as easily dropped you off at the ER instead of here.”

“The ER has seats.” Iruka countered with a heady whine.

Raidou couldn’t help but chuckle at that, the kid had a point. “Come on you big baby...Here we are.” Shoving the door open without even bothering to knock Raidou gave a nod to the startled woman just inside. The private office was divvied up between a desk swamped with paperwork and an actual doctors examination room. The woman who didn’t look quite so pleased to be intruded upon looked more irate upon seeing Iruka. Sighing she stood up, pushing her chair back all in one go.

“Get him up on the table.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Shut it, Hawk.” She bit out crassly while grabbing some gloves.

Iruka gave a breathy chuckle as the Anbu helped him to sit down on the table, giving the Anbu a weak smirk. “She seems a fan of yours.”

“Watch it, kid.” The Anbu glowered in return.

“So what happened?” The woman didn’t even bat an eye as she forcefully shoved Hawk out of the way, sending the man crashing into the nearby wall. Iruka gave a snort of amusement only to hiss when the woman touched his leg. Arching forward, Iruka’s own hands were swatted away. The blonde woman looked up at the teen through glasses with an ill impressed look.

“Don’t touch.”

“It’s my leg.” The Chunin countered.

“It’s an infection waiting to happen is what it is.” She harped. “Now, who wants to tell me what happened?” She glanced from Iruka to Hawk and then back to Iruka. “Or I can start poking at things.” She threatened.

Iruka sent a sharp look at Hawk. “Who is she?! Why does she think we’d lie to her?”

The woman huffed. “Don’t bother trying to get the truth out of him for that one kid.” She smiled back at Iruka. “Now, seeing as you seem able to tell me the truth, let alone considerate enough to do so...What happened?”

“Dog.”

She blinked up at him a moment before sighing. “And?” 

Iruka shrugged. “Very angry dog...Ninken.” He elaborated further. “I-I was helping Tsume-Sama and one of the-”

“Rabid dog.”

Iruka’s eyes widened, he twisted to shout. “What?!”

The Anbu sighed. “Not rabid kid...She just needed to know it had a few screws loose.”

“Don’t say that!”

Hawk sighed, looking back at the glowering woman he shrugged. “Tsume’s putting it down.”

“Good.” The woman harrumphed, looking back at the bites she began talking as if nothing else had been said to interrupt her. “You don’t need to know my name, you won’t be coming back here...Any doctor could have seen to this.” She sent a calculated look towards Hawk.

“Yeah, but then I’d get to hear about traumatizing the doctors downstairs.” The Anbu retorted. “Simpler to just bring him to you.”

Iruka frowned, watching as the pair argued with one another. “I-I’m sorry...But if you’re not going to do anything can I go get a doctor that will? This is beginning to hurt.”

She sighed, looking dejectedly at Iruka. “Of course I’m going to help you...I’m just going to take it out of his hide later.

“You love me.”

Iruka couldn’t help but snort, knowing instinctually that the doctor wasn’t going to agree with that. He snickered when his snort aligned with the woman’s own, sending Hawk a mischevious grin. The Anbu glared back at him but didn’t say a word.

“Alright, well first things first, I’m going to need to remove the rest of this pant leg.”

Iruka waved a hand. “I really don’t think that’s much of an issue.”

She smirked. “You’d be surprised about how conflicted people can be about such things.”

Iruka frowned, that sounded really strange to him. Why would someone be conflicted about losing already ruined clothing?

“I was delusional thank you very much.”

Iruka looked at Hawk a moment before asking. “You were delusional?”

Raidou nodded, though he refused to tell the teen much more than. “Poison does that to you, I was fine after he took care of me. She’s a good doctor.”

“Praising me doesn’t makeup from dropping a wounded Chunin on my doorstep like some kind of baby bird you found.”

“Baby bird?” Iruka shook his head utterly confused despite Hawk’s laughter, any questions he might have had about the subject went out the window when the doctor finished removing his pant leg and proceeded to shift his leg about. Hissing sharply, Iruka couldn't help but bite out. “Son of a bitch!”

Hawk snorted. “Lan-”

“Screw you! This hurts!” Iruka hissed, throwing his head back and biting his lip.

Raidou sighed, he supposed it was rather cruel to force the kid to watch his tongue. The wound did look rather nasty, coming forward, cautiously just in case the woman decided to be violent towards him, Raidou stood beside Iruka and offered what little comfort he could. Taking the kid’s hand and squeezing. “I got handguards, squeeze away.”

Iruka gave a startled laugh before bearing down on the Anbu’s hand. Raidou winced at the force of the metal biting into him because of the teen but admitted that he’d asked for it.

“Alright, looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me. There’s little tearing of the wounds, far better than I was hoping for.”

“Great.” Iruka gritted out.

Raidou chuckled at the unenthused response from the teen, giving the woman a stout look. “I don’t think he cares for the technical terms right now doc.”

She huffed. “That wasn’t technical.” Rolling her eyes she moved off to grab some supplies, talking as she did so. “I need to flush the wounds, just because the dog wasn’t rabid doesn’t mean that it brushed its teeth...Infection is the main concern here. Once I can be sure that the risk is low, we can suture up the wounds and send you back wherever it is that Hawk snatched you up from.” She twisted with a small tray in hand, glowering back at the Anbu. “Make sure to put him back where you found him, don’t want him getting lost now.”

Raidou snorted at the woman’s taunting. “He belongs to Wolf, trust me when I say he couldn’t get far away from the nest.”

“Oh good, more dogs.” She replied without an upwards glance from where she was slowly wiping at the wounds.

Iruka was listening to the tirades going on from each side, he wasn’t sure why the woman kept taunting Hawk with bird things unless it had to do with his mask. Even then the Chunin didn’t find it all that amusing, but maybe she was bored and fed up with Anbu. Himiko did strange things when she was fed up with them, would make sense that other people would do the same thing. Then again her last comment was strictly towards Wolf, so she had to have something against the Anbu on a whole.

“Alright...What’s your name?”

“Iruka.” The teen bit out.

“Well, Iruka, I’m about to use a saline solution to clear out some of the debris, from there I’m going to use a solution that’s similar to peroxide to get any bacteria that might have been trans-”

“Just do it, please, just do it.” 

Smirking the woman went about her work, Iruka took deep breaths. The longer that everything went on the more his leg was throbbing. It was by far not the worst he had ever faced, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like hell. It felt like the dog had taken the meat of his leg clean off, but Iruka knew that wasn’t true. Sure the dog had done some damage, but like the doctor had said it was really just holes where the teeth had sunken in. Not too bad.

“Son of-!”

“Breath kid.” Hawk instructed as he tightened his own hand on the boy, hoping to distract him from the pain of what the doctor was doing. She was thorough in her work, one of the reasons she was the go-to doctor for the majority of Anbu when they just got bumps and bruises. Of course, their rendition of bumps and bruises were a bit more advanced than what most doctors saw, but that was just a good indication of her skill more than anything. 

“Alright, I’m going to use the other solution now Iruka. Try and keep your leg relaxed, don’t tense up the muscles.”

“Sure.” The Chunin hissed. “Easy right?” He threw out.

Raidou chuckled at the teen’s sarcasm, he couldn’t wait to see how this all went down once the kid was ready to go home. Somehow Raidou didn’t think there was anywhere Tsume could hide that would shield her from Kakashi’s wrath once he found out what happened, then again she wasn’t a coward and would most likely send Kakashi packing with his own tail between his legs. That woman was like that. Raidou was jarred from his thoughts by Iruka twisting on the bed, the teen using his free hand to grasp the Anbu’s armor and hiss out.

“Why couldn’t it have been puppies? God this sucks.”

Chuckling he reached out a patted the teens back. “If it was puppies it would be hundreds of bites instead of one.”

“Hundreds of bites that don’t break skin, Hawk.” Iruka bit out into the man’s shoulder.

“True...And I bet they would be a sight cuter than the monster that tried to take a chunk out of you.”

Iruka snorted. “Not hard to do that, the thing was ugly as H-ELL!”

Raidou sighed, grimacing as he watched the woman slowly start to suture up one of the wounds. “Could have warned him.” 

“Could have, didn’t.” She countered, sending him a sharp look. “You come to me you get the same treatment as all the others, just because he’s not one of your brothers doesn’t mean that he gets special treatment...Maybe you’ll think twice before you come barging in.”

Raidou scowled. “So you’re punishing him for me bothering you with someone needing medical help?”

The woman glared back, turning once more back to her work rather than bother speaking back at the Anbu. Sighing Raidou patted the teens back. “Just breath kid, we’ll get you some drugs after and you can conk out on the couch.”

“Just knock me out.”

Raidou snorted. “No can do, I am not explaining a concussion to Wolf as a means of pain relief.”

“I’ll do it.”

“You’d be unconscious.”

Iruka hissed as the woman started stitching him again. “I'll write a note!”

Chuckling the Anbu continued to distract the teen to the best of his ability, none of it seemed to do more than aggravate the teen, but that was better than nothing. At least this way Iruka had something to focus on besides the pain that is. 

“Hey just think about this, Wolf is going to go see Tsume and chew her out for this.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better Hawk.” 

Sighing the Anbu replied. “It should, lord knows it amuses me.”

Iruka whined as the doctor continued to suture the various holes the animal’s teeth had left behind. “From now on I’m only working with the deer!”

Hawk snorted. “I’ll be sure to tell Raccoon that, though I suppose that would make Wolf feel better about everything.” He patted the teen’s back while allowing Iruka to cling to him, gazing over the teen’s shoulder to stare down at the progress being done on Iruka’s leg. He hummed at the sight of progress, reassuring the teen. “Almost done.”

Iruka nodded against him, the teen's hands clenched tightly on the man’s armor as he rode out the pain from the last few stitches. Iruka had broken out in a cold sweat from the pain and if the teen had the opportunity he would have gladly passed out. Unfortunately, Iruka’ s body didn’t seem on board with that so he got the pleasure of riding throughout the procedure. 

“There.” The woman called out. “All done, I’m going to cover the wounds in antibiotic cream and after that, all it needs is a bandage, you’ll be free to torment someone else.”

Hawk glared at the chipper woman who set about gathering the last of the supplies needed to take care of the teen. Iruka had all but collapsed against his shoulder, not that he blamed the kid. Patting his back, Raidou tried to soothe the weary teen. “Nearly there kid, I’ll take you home afterward alright?”

He got a small groan as an affirmative, the Anbu couldn’t hold the lackluster response against the kid after what he’d been through. The doctor returned a moment later, mindfully coating the sutured wounds before wrapping the affected area in clean gauze. Secured, the wound was ready to start healing on its own, looking up at Hawk the doctor stated. “He needs to stay off of it as much as he’s able. Change bandage dressings twice a day, any signs of infection come in.”

Hawk nodded. “Thanks.”

She waved a hand, abruptly turning to start cleaning up the leftover mess from taking care of the Chunin. “Say thank you to the nice doctor Iruka.”

The teen groaned, a small. “Thanks.” Coming from the teen.

Sighing the woman turned and glared. “Go away.”

Chuckling Hawk wrapped a hand around the teen and transported them from the now irate doctor's office. 

******

Raidou smiled beneath his mask as he lowered Iruka onto the boy's couch, helping to situate his damaged leg. Propping it up a bit on a pillow before wandering into the kitchen to get an icepack. Coming back into the room found Iruka with his arm crossed over his eyes, chuckling Raidou gently set the ice pack on the affected area. Wincing alongside the Chunin when the boy hissed.

“Sorry.”

“Oh god, that hurts.”

“Yeah, didn’t look like much fun...But hey, you’re home now.”

Iruka raised his arm enough to glare at the Anbu. “Why does she not use painkillers?”

“She’s a sadist.”

Iruka huffed, letting his arm once more collapse across his eyes. “You should have taken me to the ER.”

“Probably, but if I had you would still be waiting for help.”

“They have pain medicine.” The teen argued forcefully.

Sighing Raidou walked around the small coffee table to kneel down beside the Chunin’s head. “Hey sorry about that, but she does a good job. Just wanted to get you taken care of sooner rather than later, plus I wouldn’t really have been allowed to stay with you in the ER. It would have made too much of a scene.”

Iruka huffed. “That’s what you guys are all about.”

Hawk chuckled. “You’d think so, but our boss the type to agree with you.”

The Chunin sighed, a moment later his arm shifting a bit so a single eye could stare back at him. “Tell your bos-”

“AH...Watch it.” Raidou cautioned the teen.

“Fine,” Iruka grumbled. “It still sucked.”

“Not debating that kid, just debating the fact that you think this could have ended more in your favor. It was going to suck no matter who took care of it and at least with her, I knew it was going to be handled.”

Iruka nodded. “What’d you do to piss her off?”

The Anbu snickered. “Too many things, I literally don’t think I’m allowed to tell you any.”

Iruka smiled. “Liar.”

Laughing, Raidou shrugged. “Pretty sure, anyways, stay off the leg...Wolf should be around whenever he’s done with his shift. I strongly advise you against telling him where you went for treatment.”

“You mean where YOU took me to treatment.” The Chunin smirked.

“Yes, that...Remember I was helpful and took you to a doctor.”

Iruka rolled his eyes. “The same doctor you don’t want Wolf to know about.”

“Yeah, so don’t. He’s already going to be on a warpath when he hears that one of Tsume’s dogs attacked you. Don’t need my name added to the list.”

Iruka smiled at the concerned Anbu. “You took me to a doctor Hawk, didn’t catch her name.”

“Raidou grinned beneath his mask. “Knew there was a reason I loved you kid.”

Iruka laughed. “Yeah-My abilities to stop Wolf from hurting you, great skill.”

“Amazing skill.” The Anbu threw back seriously. “Take it easy alright?” Raidou stood up, prepared to leave to return to his own duties.

Iruka nodded. “Yeah, just gonna relax here...Wait for Wolf to come ask me twenty questions.”

The Anbu shook his head. “You must have lost some blood.”

“Huh?” Iruka frowned confused.

“If you honestly think he’s only going to have twenty questions then you have to be suffering from blood loss.”

Iruka glowered back at the amused Anbu. “Ha-Ha. Go away before I decide to tell him about your wonder doctor.”

Chuckling at the petulant tone the Chunin was using while attempting to threaten him, Raidou gave a wave. “See ya.”

Iruka smiled as the small cloud of smoke dissipated in the room. Relaxing on the couch, Iruka took a few deep breaths. “He couldn’t possibly have more than twenty questions...It’s just a dog bite.”

**********

Iruka was wrong, very very wrong. Wolf had appeared only long enough to deduce what had hurt him before taking off. The Chunin had known immediately where the man was going, but unable to stop it. So Iruka sat back with his leg propped up on the coffee table and nursed his cup of tea. He was patient, he could wait. Fifteen minutes later and the Anbu reappeared.

“Tsume kick you out?”

“You’re not funny.” Wolf grouse as he came to kneel near the boy's leg, sending him a glowering look through the mask.

Iruka rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I did this.”

“I know that,” Wolf replied coolly. “Just curious as to why you didn’t think to tell me sooner.”

Iruka snorted. “I was pretty out of it and I knew you were working, Hawk took care of me. Besides I wasn’t going to send him to tell you that I got hurt only to have you ditch whatever it was that you were doing when I was already safe at home.”

Kakashi hated it when the kid was reasonable...Shame it happened a lot. “Still...”

Iruka shook his head. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it okay? It hurts, but other than changing the dressing for a bit I’ll be fine.”

Nodding, somewhat pacified the Anbu rose and came to sit beside the Chunin on the couch. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

Iruka scoffed, giving the masked figure a look. “Really? There’s no way you could have known, not without Hawk or Tsume having told you.”

Wolf nodded. “I know that.”

“Then stop acting like you’re the cause of all of this, it was just a ninken. I’m fine and I’m sure Tsume has already taken care of the dog...With whatever was wrong with it.”

Kakashi hummed, he’d already talked to the woman about that. She’d handled things long before he arrived if he was to hazard a guess shortly after Raidou took Iruka to the doctor. She wasn’t a forgiving sort and the dog had already been on the metaphorical chopping block because of prior instances of aggression. It was probably for the best that the dog was taken care of, Tsume wouldn’t have let it suffer and it couldn’t hurt anyone else. 

“Wolf?”

“Hmm?” Kakashi looked over to the teen who was frowning at him, Iruka looked concerned.

“You okay? You kinda wandered.”

Smiling beneath his mask, Kakashi nodded. “I’m fine. Just thinking.”

Iruka nodded his head, he could understand that. Getting lost in your thoughts sometimes, he didn’t begrudge the Anbu doing it around him or most likely about him. Iruka wasn’t stupid, he knew that Wolf worried and having to come off of his shift to find out that Iruka had been attacked by a dog of all things probably hadn’t settled well with the man. 

“You know today sucked-”

Kakashi snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, got that much.” He waved a hand towards the boy's leg.

Iruka rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but what I was saying was it could have been worse, a lot worse...Tsume’s dogs are trained to be ninken they’re tough dogs.”

Kakashi couldn’t help but grimace at that, not that Iruka took notice. “This really isn’t all that bad, you don’t need to worry alright? I’ll be back out there with Izumo tomorrow to finish the pen.”

Wolf shook his head. “No, you-”

“I’m fine Wolf.” Iruka smiled. “Besides, if anyone deserves some time with puppies it's me. I think Tsume might even let me steal a few to make sure the project works out.”

Wolf chuckled, the boy's simple plot to get time with the newest batch of puppies was just so...Iruka. “I don’t think Tsume is going to say no to you wanting to play with the puppies Iruka.”

“She might...They are distracting.” The teen hummed. “I wonder if she’ll have us tear out the broken pen? It’s basically destroyed, the dog wanted out that’s for sure.”

Kakashi had seen for himself the damage the ninken had done in its short venture to freedom. “Yeah...It was, leave it to Tsume to decide what all you guys are going to do. If I can’t make you take a day off for that-” Kakashi waved a hand at the boy's leg. “At least do me the courtesy of not overworking yourself.”

Iruka smiled, elbowing the Anbu. “Puppies Wolf, what harm can they do to me?”

Wolf blew out a long stream of air. “Kid...”

Iruka laughed. “Alright-Alright, I promise to take it easy tomorrow, are you happy?”

“No.” Wolf was honest. “But I know that’s all I’m going to get.”

“Pretty much.” Iruka agreed with a nod.

Glaring back at the sassy teen, Wolf asked. “You sure you won’t be...weirded out by being around ninken again? So soon.”

Iruka huffed. “Why? If I was scared of everything that had attacked me I could even wander into sections of this apartment.”

Okay, the kid had a point there. Sighing Kakashi muttered. “You know what I mean Iruka.”

Iruka hummed, he did, but he wasn’t going to just give in to the Anbus critical nature. “You’re under the assumption that I’ll immediately take every ninken to be a bad one.”

“Most people would.”

“I’m not most people Wolf, I grew up with Anbu.” The boy's deadpan tone of voice had Kakashi chuckling.

“Right...I forgot, nothing must faze you anymore.”

Iruka rolled his eyes at the man taunting him. “Don’t be mean, I’m just saying I won't be scared of ninken just because one decided to chew on me like a ham bone.”

Kakashi winced at that. “Kid, watch the details alright? This is bad enough, I don’t know what it looks like under there.” He waved a hand to the teens bandaged leg.

“It’s not bad.”

“You’re definition of that and mine are distinctly different.”

Iruka didn’t bother arguing that point, the Anbu was right. “Fine, but if you don’t believe me ask Hawk. He saw it, he said it wasn’t bad.”

“The previous statement still applies.”

Iruka chuckled at the irritated tone of the Anbu’s voice. “Well you’ve trusted him in the past to help me, I don’t see why this would be any different.”

“Helping you and recognizing how bad something is, is entirely different things.”

Iruka shrugged, looking down at his bandaged leg the teen commented. “I think he did a pretty good job, he let me curse.”

Kakashi huffed. “And that’s why you think he did a good job?”

“It hurt.” Iruka simplified.

“Uh-huh cause that’s a prime example of great bedside manner. Cursing.”

Iruka snickered. “At the time, it was. The doctor wasn’t...Very forgiving.”

“What do you mean?”

Iruka shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, my point is that Hawk took care of me and sure I find it amusing that he allowed me to cure because it hurt but he also was just...There.”

“There.”

Iruka smiled. “Yeah, he let me pull on his armor.”

Kakashi snorted. “So he got used as a kind of pain stress release and that automatically makes him a good candidate for caring for injuries?”

“Pretty much.” Iruka nodded. “Oh, and the cursing.”

Wolf rolled his eyes. “Right, can’t forget that.”

Iruka leaned over, laying his head on the Anbu’s shoulder. “Don’t tell Hawk, but I’d rather you had been there...Even if it meant I couldn’t curse.”

Kakashi’s body shook with laughter, his gloved hand coming up to ruffle the kid's hair. “I promise I won’t say a word.”

Iruka smiled. “ Good.” The Chunin and Anbu sat there for a few minutes, silence falling between them until Iruka spoke up again. “Hey, Wolf?”

“Hmm?”

“My legs sore.”

The Anbu chuckled. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“You get to play with puppies tomorrow.”

Iruka smiled and nodded into the man’s shoulder. “They should have smaller teeth.”

Kakashi smiled. “If they’re teeth can mangle your leg we seriously need to talk to Tsume.”

“Yeah.”

Closing his eyes, Kakashi let his head tilt to the side to lay on top of Iruka’s. “Wanna hear about my day?”

“Does it involve killer ninken?”

Kakashi chuckled. “Close.” He promised the Chunin. “A rampaging Anbu captain has just about as many teeth and is just as prone to biting.”

Iruka laughed. “Wolf.”

“It’s true,” Wolf replied. “So...There’s this captain of a smaller recon squad, he’s got a bit of an attitude an-”

“Did you set him off?”

Kakashi sighed. “This is my story and no, I was just a hapless bystander who got to enjoy the show.”

“Oh. Alright, continue.”

“Thank you.” The Anbu nodded. “So, there I was minding my own business when a fellow Anbu came in and shouted-Well, you don’t need to know that part. Anyways, he shouted something and that set off the Anbu squad. Before I knew it-”

Iruka smiled as he listened to Wolf talk about the altercation at the Anbu headquarters. The teen would have bet his next paycheck that somewhere in this story Wolf got involved. He’d just have to wait and see. Wolf’s stories were always good, even if half the time Iruka thought that the man went looking for opportunities to cause trouble. 


End file.
